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So hard to focus my mind recently...

My current project is actually designing a set of oracle cards (like tarot cards but original names and meanings). But I think it's really the same activity as trying to brainstorm the story. I feel like I need to put more (relevant) raw material into my mind to stimulate ideas, but I ran out of raw material. Already hit the bookstore, the library, and the museum, not to mention my own bookshelf and card collection. What do you guys do when your subconscious demands to be fed truckloads of images and symbolism?

You could try looking in unconventional places. The old 'take a shower' technique - get away from the place where you create and do something that means you'd have to go to a special effort to go somewhere and write down the idea.

SIGNATURE OF DEATH!!!

It's pretty good at killing any WIP I list here, but I'm working on trying to revive my blog.

Symbolism and all that shit falls into my lap the more I write. I swear to God, my MC seems like a perfect "black knight" setup, with the world symbolism spelled across his face, but it's all coincidence though revisions.

I've always liked to study religions and cultures. Greek mythology is spectacular for metaphors and symbols (pretty much, all of it is a metaphor).

Added: Ask yourself: Why do you need the oracle cards? (I'm guessing character profiles) Could you just skip them, work on the project and create them as you go? Then, in a revision, go back and add them (where they are needed).

I find if you try to define yourself before a project (let's say, world building), it's far harder to stick to what you defined, rather than working into the direction the story takes you. It's like a snake shedding its skin. You create a new skin, and as time passes and progress turns, you find yourself far too cramped and have to shed it all over again.

Don't Fear Failure.

"Look at the sound of all these people on fire. I want to be on fire, do you want to be on fire?" -- Most Roads Lead to Home, Listener.

"The heights of great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night" -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Added: Ask yourself: Why do you need the oracle cards? (I'm guessing character profiles) Could you just skip them, work on the project and create them as you go? Then, in a revision, go back and add them (where they are needed).

Hehe, no, the project IS the oracle cards and a book of interpretations to go with them. I'm trying to make a deck to get it published.

Hehe, no, the project IS the oracle cards and a book of interpretations to go with them. I'm trying to make a deck to get it published.

Ahh...

Have you tried collective thinking? Define a set number of terms. Let's say: Water, fire, earth, air. Then, give a set under that, branching off from it. So: Water: Ice, liquid, mist. And then breakl down even further.

Something like that. Maybe you can use mythologies as a set, and raise inspiration from them.

Don't Fear Failure.

"Look at the sound of all these people on fire. I want to be on fire, do you want to be on fire?" -- Most Roads Lead to Home, Listener.

"The heights of great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night" -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

My current project is actually designing a set of oracle cards (like tarot cards but original names and meanings). But I think it's really the same activity as trying to brainstorm the story. I feel like I need to put more (relevant) raw material into my mind to stimulate ideas, but I ran out of raw material. Already hit the bookstore, the library, and the museum, not to mention my own bookshelf and card collection. What do you guys do when your subconscious demands to be fed truckloads of images and symbolism?

Let it simmer while turn your attention elsewhere. It needs time to digest.